The 'Lagarde List' Is Back, And Things Could Get Really Explosive In Greece Again

The infamous "Lagarde List" saga has the potential to drag it
back into the spotlight tomorrow.

The original list – which reportedly contains the names of around
2000 Greeks with bank accounts at the Swiss branch of HSBC – was
leaked to the media in late October.

However, skeptics of the version of the list that was made public
are concerned by the fact that it took Evangelos Venizelos – the
leader of the Greek PASOK political party and former Greek
finance minister – nearly two years to hand the list of names
over to the police, despite having received it from then-French
finance minister and now IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde
all the way back in 2010.

In other words, there was ample opportunity to tamper with or
modify the list during that time, and there is a possible motive
for such tampering as well: if the list contained names of
prominent members of PASOK, it would highlight the hypocrisy of
the party that has been at the helm of the Greek government for
the majority of the euro crisis as the country's economy has
spiraled into the abyss – in part due to the Greek
government's inability to collect revenues from tax
evaders hiding their riches offshore.

These concerns prompted the new Greek government – in which PASOK
still plays a prominent role in the ruling coalition but is no
longer in charge – to request and obtain another copy of the
original list from the authorities in Paris in recent days.

This week, investigators in Greece's SDOE financial crimes unit
have been poring over the new list, cross-checking names and
balances with those on the old list.

Today, Reuters reports that SDOE
has concluded its investigation and has handed the list over
to parliament. Pending the publication of the results of the
probe, there are two big open questions: what will the
results of the investigation show, and how damning could they
prove to be for a fragile Greek coalition trying to guide the
country through contentious reforms demanded by international
creditors in exchange for loans that will keep Greece from the
edge of bankruptcy?

This week, Greek newspaper Proto Thema reported that the new copy
of the Lagarde List
may contain nearly 600 names that didn't appear on the
version that Venizelos submitted to the police earlier this
year. However, that report hasn't been verified.

Yet the report certainly heightens the anxiety for PASOK and the
Greek government as the public awaits the results of this week's
investigation.

With PASOK in the eye of the storm, at a time when it is a
crucial member of the governing coalition, any revelations that
will burden the once mighty party may threaten the government’s
cohesion. At such a dangerous moment, then, it is inconceivable
that the present handling of the issue should leave room for
further suspicion.

Regardless of what the new list contains, though, Konstandaras
has a scathing critique of the current government and its
handling of the ongoing case:

From the start, the issue fueled citizens’ cynicism, from the way
PASOK’s finance ministers and financial crimes squad leaders
handled it to today’s officials – whose extreme caution, on the
one hand, and delays, on the other, have allowed the spread of
rumors, new leaks and the further undermining of confidence in
the political system.

Whatever the list has been hiding, its contents would not have
been so dangerous as the handling of the issue has proved. But
people’s suspicions are based on a deep-rooted lack of trust.
When everyone knows the level of tax evasion, while at the same
time being called on to pay higher and higher taxes, no one
believes what they are told is true. And so the Lagarde list
becomes another crystal ball, in which we look to see not what is
there but what we expect to see.

The upshot: keep an eye on Greece tomorrow. At this stage in the
game, the situation has the potential to take an explosive turn.